I hate tornadoes.

[curses]

I really do. We just now got power back, but that's the least of my woes. Let me tell you about my early Saturday morning while the pics are downloading from my camera.

I woke up for no reason at about 2.30 this morning. Couldn't get back to sleep to save my life. I decided to get up about 3 and play on teh interwebs. About 3.15AM the weather radio goes off telling us about a tornado watch. Now Alan's awake, too. We spend the next half hour or so keeping an eye on the weather situation online as there were some nasty supercells on the GA-AL border.

4.00 gives us a tornado warning for Fulton County. There are a few tornadic cells over Cobb and Cherokee that were plotted to come over our area. This causes much concern (read: panic). We continue to watch as the cells carrying the tornadoes look to lose their rotation. I wasn't terribly concerned as 4.10 approaches.

Then it starts to rain. And rain hard. The next sound we heard sounded like hail. It wasn't. It was a tornado blowing debris up against the house. The power flickered once, then went out for good. Next thing we know, the wind picks up till that's all you can hear. I remarked ever so (not) calmly that it was a tornado and we should probably be in the bathroom. By the time we got there, it was done. I wasn't sure at this point if it HAD been a tornado, since NWS was predicting severe straight line winds and the tornado siren a few blocks away never went off. I would soon change my mind. *pauses dramatically*

At about 4.30 (when the tornado warning expired), we went outside with a flashlight to check the extent of the damage and check on the neighbors. There were pine trees through my two next door neighbor's houses. (it's worth noting here that we live in duplexes). The lady that owns the other side of the house I live in has a branch shot through her roof. Luckily, she wasn't home.

It really didn't hit home how lucky Alan and I had been till morning, when we could see the extent of the damage. :Not much damage to report on our side; just a few shingles loose. The path of the tornado started in Marietta, I believe, came across Roswell and Crabapple, then into Alpharetta, carrying on into Duluth. I haven't watched the news yet; I hope everyone's OK.

Insurance agent's been called, pictures taken, parents have been over to ooh and aah. I need to start cleaning up the yard, but I'm too tired now.

How did everyone else in the southeastern US fair?

[Legs]

Oh wow, how awful :(

What a stressful event that was... I'd love to see your pics and I am happy to hear you have power again and everyone is safe.

[Ymir's blood]

I'm glad that you and Alan are ok.

Hope the kitties weren't scared!

We had some thunder last night and it has rained (heavily) off on for the last twenty hours or so. No wind to speak of though, 10-20 mph right now though we had much worse 50+ earlier in the week.

[SharonDee]

Holy crap, minus! :eek: You had a much closer call than we did.

At our office yesterday afternoon, HR paged all employees to go to their "safe places" in the building as a tornado was near. I don't know if it really was or if someone saw the hail and panicked. I watched on a coworker's TV set as the local news reported on the tornadic activity to the north of us in Gallatin and to the south of us in Columbia.

There was scary potential in the early evening after I got home from work. But as we watched, the possibility for tornados occurring in our neighborhood began to lessen when the system moved slowly eastward. After that, it was a matter of listening to the thunder boom.

Go away, tornado season! :twister: :madrant:

[Crumb]

It's good to hear that everyone is ok.

[freemonkey]

Oh, minus! I'm sorry you guys had such a scare, but I'm glad you're all OK and that your home didn't suffer much damage. :teddyhug:

[viscousmemories]

Damn that's terrible! I'm glad you and your things are relatively unshaken, Minus. I hate tornadoes too, although I've never suffered the effects of one. Even more I hate that there's no such thing as a Texas basement.

[Plant Woman]

Wow, I heard about all the tornadoes in your area, glad you are ok! I have another friend who is in Tennesse and didn't hear from her for the longest time. She is ok, but power was out for her too.

It seems early for all these tornadoes that have happened lately.

[livius drusus]

That sounds horrible, minus. I'm glad y'all are okay and that clean-up looks to be relatively manageable. :hug:

[curses]

Hi all, thanks for the :hug:s. Our cable company decided shortly after I posted this that they should cut service off for our area. Thanks, Comcast.

Suprisingly enough, the pine trees are gone and the yards have been raked free of debris (and the grass cut and the summer annuals planted, but that's another story. It involves sunburned arms and sore legs.). We were lucky here, compared to what some in Tennessee and Alabama went through. There were no injuries in my neighborhood, but plenty of damage. We're still waiting to see if the NWS will call it a tornado or not.

Here's a link (http://pics.livejournal.com/nailbunny7/gallery/0000z7dz) to the pics I was able to upload before the internet went down on Saturday.

[Tanda]

:shudder: Glad everything's okay, minus.

[Smilin]

Wow minus.

Went through the same thing up here in Tennessee for a while Friday afternoon. Three people died here when there mobile home was demolished by a tornado.

Basically, I spent the night huddled with my family in the hallway under a mattress in between storms. Mine made it out okay, no damage to the house or vehicles. Many up in this area weren't so lucky though.

Glad that you and yours are okay!

[Stormlight]

Damn, that's scary stuff. :yipes:

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

Damn, minus, that's scary.

I'm in Knoxville.. I was working Fri. night when they were expecting the Big One to blow through. I like storms, but this one had me freaking out (since I don't have a car, mom has to come and get me, and I worried about her) bad. They sent the minors home ( :rolleyes: ) and I left around midnight or so. It went over easy. But Sunday night was baaad. Major storm, complete with hail and a weathercast that cut into West Wing for 20-30 minutes. :glare:

[cappuccino]

wow, that's some crazy shit, tornados can be scary and cool at the same time at least till one of them mows down your house. My aunt and uncle's house in Kentucky was severely damaged by a tornado a week ago, I might be going over there this weekend to help out them.

[Puck]

Wow, I'm glad everyone came through it okay. We spent the day watching the weather on TV and me checking the online radar images every 5 minutes. We came out with no problems. Whew.

There was a bad tornado a few years back that killed 20 something folks. Bobby and I laid in bed and listened to it apporach, go over head, and leave. We didn't know it had killed all those people untill the next morning. Whew on that one, too.

I hate tornados, too.

[BDS]

Tornadoes are dangerous – but if they didn’t exist we would have been deprived of two of the greatest movies ever made: The Wizard of Oz and Twister.

[curses]

Tornadoes are dangerous – but if they didn’t exist we would have been deprived of two of the greatest movies ever made movies that Superstation plays waaaay too much of: The Wizard of Oz and Twister.Fixed for ya ;)

[ceptimus]

The UK has the highest incidence of tornadoes per square mile anywhere on earth. Fortunately for us, most of these are nowhere near as stong as the ones experienced in central North America. We had this one (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/4725279.stm) last summer, about 15 miles from where I live.

I'm glad to hear that minus and family survived okay. Keep safe.

[BDS]

Best line in Twister:

"He's (the bad guy scientist) just in it for the money, not the science."

Second best line:

"We have debris..." (Is there some reason that the Twister Chasers are giving their buddies a "play by play"?)

[curses]

The UK has the highest incidence of tornadoes per square mile anywhere on earth. Fortunately for us, most of these are nowhere near as stong as the ones experienced in central North America. We had this one (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/4725279.stm) last summer, about 15 miles from where I live.

I'm glad to hear that minus and family survived okay. Keep safe.Thanks :) There goes our plans to escape this crazy weather by moving to London.

It's official: it was an F1
F1 tornado... Cobb and Fulton counties... Noonday -3e Alpharetta...
355 am - 415 am edt:
the fourth tornado touched down approximately seven miles north of
Marietta or just south of the intersection of Canton Road/Georgia
Highway 5 and jamerson Road and traveled east about 18 miles to
Alpharetta in north Fulton County. At the beginning of the tornado
track... at least 200 trees were down with damage reported to about
60 homes... 10 with major damage and 50 with minor damage. The
majority of the damage occurred within the Jamerson Forest
subdivision in the Noonday area. Intermittent damage continued from
this point into north Fulton County with minor damage reported to
several homes in the Sweat Mountain area. Considerable damage was
once again noted just south of crabapple. A car wash and detail shop
were destroyed... a gas station suffered major damage... and a nearby
strip mall suffered suffered minor damage. Hundreds of trees were
down on Rucker Road. The damage continued into the Alpharetta area
where about 40 homes were damaged by downed trees. Five of the
homes had major damage with 35 sustaining minor damage. This
tornado was rated an F1 and had a path length of 18 miles... 7 miles
in Cobb County and 11 miles in north Fulton. The path width ranged
from 10 to 200 yards wide at points along the path.

Oh, and the best line in Twister is "That's no moon, it's a space station!" Love the Preacher. He was mad.

[pescifish]

The UK has the highest incidence of tornadoes per square mile anywhere on earth. I did not know that.
:carson:

minus, I'm glad you, your home and family faired ok in this!

[Dingfod]

The UK has the highest incidence of tornadoes per square mile anywhere on earth.Yes, if you only count numbers rather than strength. #1 tornado state, Texas, averages 134 a year at F2 or greater, Oklahoma, #2, 58, over twice as many as Texas, per square mile (1 per 860 square miles vs 1 per 1950 square miles). The UK has an average of 33 per year, making it roughly 1 per 921 square miles, roughly equivalent to Kansas, the #3 tornado state in the U.S., slightly fewer than Oklahoma.

Moral to the story: Oklahoma truly does suck more and harder than any other place.

[ceptimus]

Florida gets more small tornadoes per square mile than any other U.S. state.

source (http://www.tornadoproject.com/cellar/tttttttt.htm)

But still not as many as the UK. :P